Kruisafneming – Decent From The Cross
Kruisafneming (Decent From The Cross) by Valentine Green (1739 – 1813) c1800, after a painting by Italian-English Painter Maria Hadfield (1760 – 1838)
A powerful scene that depicts the anguish of Mary Magdalene the mother of Jesus and two of his followers who are holding his lifeless body that is laying on Mary’s lap after Jesus was taken down from the Cross; as Mary cast her gaze and open arms to the heavens.
With dark clouds looming above the faith a light is cast upon the faithful from the heavens above.
Kruisafneming is a retouched digital art old masters reproduction of a public domain image.
The Below Information Is Derived From Wikipedia.org
Valentine was a British mezzotinter engraver and print publisher who trained under British engraver Rober Hancock (1730 – 1817) of Worcester, England.
He first started his career in the solicitor’s office at Evesham; a position his father had obtained for hime; but after two years he decided to leave the legal profession and go into art, becoming a pupil of of Robert Hancock.
In 1765 he moved to London and began gan work as a mezzotint engraver, quickly rising to a position as a top tier British engraver.
In1767 he became a member of the Incorporated Society of Artists, and an associate engraver of the Royal Academy in 1775 and for the next 40 years enjoyed great success as an engraver.
Maria Cosway; was born Maria Luisa Caterina Cecilia Hadfield on 1760 in Florence Italy to the Englishmen Charles Hadfield a successful innkeeper at Livorno, Italy, and who it is believed was a native of Shrewsbury, England and an Italian mother.
She was one of eight children, and from an early age while studying at a Roman Catholic Convent; displayed a talent for art.
Maria and three of her siblings, brothers Richard and George, and a younger sister Charlotte survived into adulthood; but her other siblings were murdered by a deranged nursemaid that claimed she was sending them to heaven.
Maria’s brother George Hadfield became an architect and designed Arlington House in Virginia, USA; which was later was owned by the American Civil War Confederate General Robert E. Lee.
When Maria was in Florence she studied under Italian Painter Violante Cerroti (Violante Beatrice Siries 1709 – 1783) and German Neoclassical Painter Johann Zoffany (1733 – 1810).
For a five year period from 1773 to 1778 Maria copied the artwork of the Old Masters at the gallery of Uffizi; and for her work was elected to the Academia del Disegno in Florence in 1778, and during this period also traveled to Rome where she studied under Italian Painter Pompeo Girolamo Batoni (1708 – 1787); she also studied under Anton Raphael Mengs (1728 – 1779), Henry Fuseli (1741 – 1825), and Joseph Wright of Derby (1734 – 1797).
With the help of Angelica Kauffman (1741 – 1807), Maria exhibited her art for the first time in 1781, presenting three works – Rinaldo, Creusa appearing to Aeneas (engraved in mezzotint by V. Green), and Like patience on a monument smiling at grief. Hadfield went on to gain success as a painter of mythological scenes.[9][failed verification]
Maria became a successful painter, composer, musician and society hostess along with her husband celebrated miniature portrait painter Richard Cosway (1741 – 1821); whom she married in 1781.